Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#141

Post by jgrzymski » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#142

Post by gt565k » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 6:10 PM UTC

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-C...

It really has opened my eyes about how to deal with having a negative attitude and understanding the driving forces behind being in the "flow"

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#143

Post by zodiac » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 7:29 PM UTC

devgutt wrote: post #13

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1] [1] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

For me the main thing that Atlas Shrugged made me extend my conception of civil disobedience to economic laws. I believed that civil disobedience against for eg racial segregation laws is morally correct. Atlas Shrugged made me agree that in some cases, economic law can be unjust as well, and it would be moral to disobey it.

It did so by presenting a fictional instance of unjust economic laws. At least I read it as pure fiction - whether such unjust laws actually exist anywhere in the world is, I think, best treated as a completely separate question.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#144

Post by hariis » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 8:08 PM UTC

Learn to Meditate. It will "blow away your Mind". No kidding.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#145

Post by timtas » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 10:04 PM UTC

"The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek [1]

"Novum Organum" by Francis Bacon [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novum_Organum

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#146

Post by teenie » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 10:32 PM UTC

TIE!!! "The Crying of Lot 49" by Pynchon // "The Demolished Man" by Bester // "Ubik" by Dick !!!

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#147

Post by cthrax » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 10:42 PM UTC

"The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#148

Post by teenie » Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 11:44 PM UTC

TIE!!! "The Crying of Lot 49" by Pynchon // "The Demolished Man" by Bester // "Ubik" by Dick !!!

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#149

Post by atsaloli » Sat, Jun 13, 2015, 5:02 AM UTC

sciencesama wrote: post #123

dschiptsov wrote: post #20

Upanishads.

what !! how can i read that can you refer to a particular author ?

The authorship of most Upanishads is uncertain and unknown. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#150

Post by dylanjermiah » Sat, Jun 13, 2015, 5:23 AM UTC

sixaxe wrote: post #110

vijayr wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain why you find Atlas Shrugged mind blowing? I read "we the living" and "The fountainhead" and found them quite annoying. Haven't read Atlas Shrugged, just curious if I am missing something.

I read The Fountainhead when I was 18 and I found it absolutely mind blowing. Needless to say, I was quite impressionable at the time, and a young atheist. The book served as positive reinforcement to me, emphasizing on belief in oneself, rather than belief in God. It was also the perfect fodder for my teen angst, wrapped in delicious ideological and intellectual mysticism. This led me to be an unapologetic jerk to e…

>This led me to be an unapologetic jerk to everyone around me for a year or so.

How would that behaviour be rationalised from Foutainhead?